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tourist tax in Prague – AirBnB

This is what you as AirBnB host need to know about the tourist tax in Prague, called „Místní poplatek za lázeňský nebo rekreační pobyt“.
This tax is different in each city district. You need to fill a different form and file it in a different place.

Important: I am not a lawyer and I do not give legal advise in any kind, ask your lawyer or tax adviser for such.

Main points on the tax

you need to keep a „book of guests“

it is 15 CZK per person per night (not per bed!)

registration is done in 15min and is easy

you need to file a monthly form latest the 15th of the succeeding month

Take the form, some identification document (passport/ID) and hand it in at their office (close to Lazarska tram stop) – currently they’re open only on Mondays and Wednesdays, check the website for address and opening times. Google Maps link or use databox to send it

You will get your form back stamped and with a variable symbol „VS“ for doing the monthly transfers, takes 5min in the office. I have not seen queues there.

you’re officially registered now, congrats!

Keeping account on your guests

You are obliged to keep a journal „Ubytovací kniha“ on your guests and archive it for 6 years. The journal must have following data for each stay:

name and surname

number of guests

full address and country

identification document type and number (passport or ID)

length of stay (we use check-in date and number of nights)

purpose of stay (e.g. tourism)

I’ve made a simple Excel sheet called „Ubytovací kniha“ with that info as I was not able to find an official Ubytovací kniha in the papershops. If you want to order an official one check here or here or here or ask Google. You can also just have it on the computer as the guest signature is not obligatory.

It has the side effect of giving you more safety as your guest will show you an ID and we also have every entry signed by the guest.

Exempt are guests below 18 years and above 70 years, blind people and people with severe disabilities. Just make sure you can prove that..

Filing the reports and paying the fee

As the month is over you got to file a summary document „Hlášení k MP za lázeňský nebo rekreační pobyt“, get it from the website (link is on the right side). You fill there your full data and in the table below the time period, amount of occupied beds and days and the total payable amount. I got there e.g. „2014/07“, „25“, „25 x 6 = 150“.

Legal sources

Vyhláška č. 27/2003 Obecné informace Sb hl.m.Praha city information on enactment in Prague see bit.ly/1STqhsz or in with translation bit.ly/1MFVUa1

My personal take on paying tourist tax

On AirBnB meetings in 2016 I’ve not met a lot of people paying tourist tax (1 out of 20 is my guess), questionable also who is even declaring the income..

I assume that the touristtax is meant to help funding the city institution for tourism and to do some statistics about tourism in Prague. Those are very likely of importance for them.As by the low amount it probably does not contribute a lot but for sure a bit to the budget of tourist related institutions.

We’ve seen in other cities that hosting short term guests (tourists as through AirBnB) has been limited (New York, Berlin) or completely forbidden (Singapore).Whilst the driving force behind this are most likely the hotel businesses I would expect that the tourist related institutions have an important say.

When of Prague’s 3.000 hosts only about 25 hosts pay touristtax then I am not surprised if they will loudly support initiatives to banAirBnB hosting here in Prague. The hotels pay that for sure..

Let’s not give them such easy arguments to limit the sharing economy.

For me it is a safe bet that Prague’s city legislation will deal in some way or the other with AirBnB hosts and I’d like to see the outcome to be good.